Tiverton building official launches investigation into Site-Ready's acceptance of Fall River recyclables

Tuesday

Jan 22, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 22, 2013 at 10:19 PM

Tiverton’s building official has launched an investigation into whether Site-Ready Materials’ current operation at its Eagleville Road facility is permitted by town zoning laws.

Mike Gagne

Tiverton’s building official has launched an investigation into whether Site-Ready Materials’ current operation at its Eagleville Road facility is permitted by town zoning laws.

The activities in question include composting — currently permitted by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Waste Management — and the acceptance and transfer of single-stream recyclables from Fall River, to a materials recovery facility in Auburn.

When reached Monday afternoon, building official Gareth Eames declined further comment because of the investigation.

Last week it was reported that the facility at 322 Eagleville Road had been accepting yard waste and single-stream recycling from Fall River, since 2009.

Site-Ready composts the yard waste and stores the recyclables on-site, for later transfer.

It was a routine visit, according to Shafer, and from RIDEM’s standpoint Site-Ready’s operations did not violate any state-issued permits, nor did it pose an environmental risk, he said.

Shafer explained that composting pads must be kept above water level, and recyclables must be kept in enclosures. Both measures seem to be in place at the Eagleville Road facility.

“They have a store out back. We don’t require a license for recycling storage,” Shafer said.

Site-Ready’s attorney Eric Brainsky has not returned repeated calls for comment.

Tiverton Department of Public Works Director Stephen Berlucchi, who sits on the planning board as a non-voting member, said the town is looking at two separate issues.

The first is a zoning issue, and that regards whether Site-Ready’s current operation is town-authorized. The second is the matter in front of the planning board, and that is the projected impact the company’s proposed expansion may have on local traffic and the environment.

Berlucchi said he was particularly concerned about traffic safety and “the cleanliness of our streets.”

According to Site-Ready’s current application, the proposed location of a scale house to weigh trucks as they enter the facility appears to be about 80 to 100 feet into the property from Eagleville Road, Berlucchi explained. Site-Ready said it expected a daily traffic load of 180 trucks, most of them arriving between 7 and 8 a.m., according to the application.

Berlucchi said he does not believe that 80-foot buffer provides “enough stacking to guarantee that we won’t have [a] back-up of trucks during [the] busiest times of day.”

“They’re projecting a slew of trucks during their busiest time of the day, which is also our busiest time, when kids are going to school and people are going to work,” Berlucchi said.

“And then there’s the litter issue — how can hundreds of trucks come down that thin road, and not have litter?” Berlucchi asked. “That has to be addressed. There would just be too many vehicles trying to get into that little space.”

Those questions were raised at the planning board’s Jan. 8 meeting. Site-Ready has since offered to reduce its projected daily intake volume of 1,500 tons and its truck traffic by half, and offered to submit a revised application to reflect those changes, according to Planning Board Chairman Stephen Hughes. The planning board will look at this revised application at its March 5 meeting.